Above photo: Protest against ICE kidnappings in Boyle Heights. Fight Back! News.
Los Angeles, CA – On Thursday, January 29, Centro CSO held a press conference at Mariachi Plaza denouncing the ICE raids that had happened the day before. On the morning of January 28, ICE agents assaulted and kidnapped at least six people in Boyle Heights, including fruit and flower vendors, and residents of Ramona Gardens.
Centro CSO and the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network (BHIRN) responded immediately on the scene, recording and confronting the ICE agents. Members from CSO and the BHIRN helped to alert the neighborhood that ICE was nearby and informed neighbors of their rights. They also tabled outside nearby schools at the end of the school day to help young children get home safely, as many of their parents feared their commute home.
“We all can play a key role in these moments of crisis, when our communities are being terrorized, when our communities are being hijacked by a man that just simply wants to run the country as his own business,” said Enrique Velasquez of the BHIRN at the press conference.
The BHIRN responds to immigration raids in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles by bringing together leaders in the community to fight for immigrant rights. They run a hotline that responds to calls about suspected ICE activity, send volunteers to verify ICE activity, get contact info for the person being detained, and offer legal support to their families.
Sam Carrera, a Teamster sanitation worker, spoke about how the January 28 kidnappings are a clear example of how ICE is not deporting criminals and murderers like they claim to be, but they are kidnapping regular working people. “These are our neighbors. This could have been my father; this could have been an uncle of mine. These are our fathers, these are our uncles, our aunts,” said Carrera.
Speakers at the press conference talked about how important it has been for the community to stand up and fight back against ICE. Through its immigration committee, Centro CSO has been at the forefront of the struggle against ICE in Los Angeles, with their own members having responded to many ICE kidnappings since the beginning of Trump’s second term. They held an Emergency Summit Against Deportations in March of 2025 where they helped prepare organizations from across the country, including organizations from Minneapolis and Chicago, to respond to ICE raids.
Gabriel Quiroz Jr. spoke at the press conference on behalf of Centro CSO’s police brutality committee, “I want to speak on the resilience of the people of Boyle Heights. We saw heroes, like Verita Topete, confront border patrol agents who were kidnapping a beloved flower vendor. We saw neighbors come out to defend their neighbor. We saw the BHIRN jump into action and respond all across the Eastside. We saw local business owners and workers chase migra out. We saw workers shut the doors on migra as our raza ran to safety. We saw people straight up chase migra out of Boyle Heights!”
From Minneapolis to Los Angeles, people are fighting back against ICE and taking matters into their own hands to stop Trump’s racist deportations. “The only reason we survive this violence is because we protect each other,” said Verita Topete from Centro CSO’s immigration committee.
